Poor Marley May :(

Okay, so I told you how I caught step throat from Corbin (I was a day behind) and how much of a mess we both were..well in the midst of that all, Marley started acting really weird last Wed. She was extremely lethargic and weak. She wasn't eating or wanting to play. She was surprisingly calm which is not her. So finally after a few days of that, I told Daryl he really needed to take her in since she was such a mess and I would hate to go the weekend and not have her treated (even though Corbin and I didn't go to the doctor..but you know..). She lost 4 lbs and was extremely dehydrated, so they gave her fluids under her back, pain pills and some joint care chews. Then she had an x-ray to see if she ate something. Nada! But what we did get to learn was she has bi-lateral hip dysplasia (lovely) and it is genetic since she is so young. So then they drew blood which we had to wait until Monday to find out (she was also running a fever)..oh and a lovely bill of $350 which isn't fun when neither one of us is working (other than my very, very pt job doing respite). They were really thinking Valley Fever, but weren't sure. I called the surgeon to find out what the quote would be and they told us anywhere from $6500-$12,000 for both depending on the severity. So then we starting thinking maybe we needed to find her a good home who could afford to do that for her (since we were thinking her hips were done at that point since she couldn't move). I just bawled because we were so attached. I called her breeder since they had a health guarantee for her and (of course) never returned our call. I just couldn't believe we were even having a discussion like this.

Friday night she was too weak to even get up and wasn't eating any of the wet food or treats we were throwing her way. So I put wet dog food in my hands and literally hand fed her and she ate it all up. My heart just burst with joy because she was finally eating. By Sat, you couldn't even pet her head and she would just yelp in pain. We went to my dads for the Egg Hunt and I felt so guilty leaving her..I seriously thought we'd come home to a dead dog. Sunday morning she woke up and was eating, jumping around, trying to steal food from the kids and acting completely normal. Then Monday comes, she's exactly the same way. We get the blood results back and I go in to speak to the vet (whom I absolutely adore..he is so AWESOME), and he tells me her white blood count was very high meaning they were working in overdrive to get rid of a really bad infection. He said she definitely ate something like a frog or a lizard that didn't agree with her and didn't need antibiotics at that point since she was normal. I could pull her off the pain meds, but she would need joint medicine the rest of her life if we wanted to slow the progression of this. So of course we are keeping her and will give her supplements, but probably not the surgery :(. This whole thing has calmed her down some for some reason. We love her so much and are so happy she will be apart of our family for years to come!